'Booka!' Controversial Council staffer throws down in Germantown club

Latrice Bryant, chief legislative aide to Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr., displays her distaste for Fox 29 reporter Jeff Cole in Council chambers in 2008. Cole reported that she had completed personal business on city time and the network broadcast pictures of her and Goode vacationing in Jamaica. (Fox 29)

BY CATHERINE LUCEY & JAN RANSOM, Daily News Staff Writers

Posted: October 10, 2012

CITY COUNCIL members better watch their backs! Controversial staffer Latrice Bryant says she has a mean right hook and she's not afraid to use it.

The chief legislative aide to Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. posted on her Facebook page a torrid account of getting into a bathroom brawl at a Germantown nightclub. She said in a post this weekend that after some time on the dance floor, a woman followed Bryant into a bathroom stall and accused her of being with her husband.

"All of a sudden this unknown woman from the dance floor burst into my stall and grabbed my face, scratched me and her hand slid to my braids!" read Bryant's post, first reported on the Philly Blunt website by reporter Brian Hickey. "I had my darn undies/thongs down squatting when she grabbed my face. Somehow I turned and slammed my body against the door ... slamming her arm in the door ... she still had my hair!"

Bryant did not reveal the name of the club where the fight allegedly happened, late Friday or early Saturday. Nor did she identify her date, whom she called "Mr. MVP."

She said in the post that she had called 9-1-1 and filed a police report. Police confirmed a disturbance that night in that part of the city, but could provide no names or details. It was not clear if any arrests were made or charges filed.

By Monday, Bryant had removed the post from her page, which also revealed that she hit several nightspots Friday. She and Goode did not respond to emails or voice messages requesting comment.

This is not the first time in the spotlight for Bryant, 40, who made a splash in 2008 by holding up signs in Council calling Fox 29 racist for a story about her attending to personal business while logged in at work at City Hall.

Fox 29 also published photos of Bryant on a Jamaican vacation with Goode. At the time, Goode said the two were not engaged in a romantic relationship.

Bryant eventually apologized for calling Fox 29 reporter Jeff Cole a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but disputed his reporting. After that scandal had barely died down, she set City Hall abuzz in 2009 with comments on her Facebook page asking what someone should do if her boss proposed.

Bryant is a Democratic committeewoman who comes from a family with strong ties to the city's Democratic machine. She unsuccessfully took on state Rep. Rosita Youngblood in 2004 and flirted with the idea of running for City Council in 2010.

Bryant makes $95,000 and has been with the city since 1995, according to city payroll records.

Contact Catherine Lucey at luceyc@phillynews.com or 215-854-4172. Follow her on Twitter @PhillyClout. Read her blog at phillyclout.com.